This is Halloween

it's in the mail

sometimes pictures don't do subjects justice. I remember thinking that when I camped at the Grand Canyon many moons ago; today's card is another example ... or it COULD be the photographer ... sigh ... anywho, the colors are soft and amazing IRL!

I took a vacation day today, and am sitting at my PC which is positioned at a back wall with a slider glass door next to me ... and that beautiful tree I took pics of earlier this week? this morning we had frost on the lawn and when the sun hit the trees, it was like watching Pigpen in a Charlie Brown special! the orange maple has since slowed and now only an occasional leaf is falling, but I expect the yellow one to be leafless by the end of the day.

I'm addressing Halloween cards and this one's in the mail today! It was from a class project at a local paper crafting store - Capture a Memory - from a year or two ago. sorry, no deets today; all supplies were provided to us in class. the bats were from a puffy ribbon strip and I've used them multiple times, cutting each bat apart separately to affix to cards.

trick or treat ...

... give me something good to eat!

Another Halloween card today, this was made for a sketch challenge that I then lost the URL for! If you happen to know of the challenge, please let me know!

stamps: My Mind's Eye blackbird; paper: My Mind's Eye spooked, Pink Paislee Twilight & Eclipse DP and Postcards block, Paper Reflections black card stock; ink: Ranger black soot distress ink

frightful & delightful

I'm a fan of Amuse's sentiment stamps and this one gets pulled out every Halloween. The darlin' witch is one of Mike's recent $1 stamps ... they offered lots of cute kids in this series, and I tried to limit myself to a half dozen, really I did! Yesterday's card was based on a challenge to not use orange anywhere; today's FSC38 challenge is to use orange and black.

stamps: Amuse Artstamps' frightful & delightful, Mike's craft smart witch; paper: Pink Paislee's Twilight Collection Eclipse, My Mind'e Eye's spooked black scribbles DP, ColorMates' dark terra-cotta, Paper Reflections' black, and Staples' white card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot and pumice stone distress ink, studio g's peachy chalk pigment ink

black and white and ...

If you're a frequent visitor here, you know one of my fav color combos is black and white and a punch of color ... well, how 'bout a black and white Halloween card for this week's Cas-ual Fridays CFC24 challenge? It's actually to make a Halloween card without any orange, and this one fits that bill! I've made lots of seasonal cards with the main image and snowflakes or fall leaves or butterflies at the different angles but didn't know if I'd made one with bats! I had a hard time finding bats in my stash of stamps, however! I had plenty of stamps that included a bat or two in the background, but finally found this cluster of bats in an sei stamp set I'd picked up a couple years back at a Mega Meet. So ... for this simple card (think KISS - Keep It Simple, Silly) I first inked in Versamark, then distress ink, to ensure I got the necessary coverage over the textured card stock. Easy peasy!

stamps: mike's craft smart haunted house goodness, sei's eerie alley; paper: AC textured white, Paper Reflections' black card stocks; ink: Versamark, Ranger's black soot distress ink

edited 10/21/2011 to add: woot! woot! my card was selected for the VIP club at Cas-ual Fridays! thanx, ladies!

halloween mojo

I'm a fan of Mojo Mondays, and today's card uses the October 3rd sketch #209. I picked up the DP last year and the cute l'il frankie stamp from Mike's recently. I also picked up some Halloween goodies while there for my eldest son's classroom party later this month (hence the spider from one of the spidey rings). And you ready for some trivia? When I logged on to Blogger to upload today's post, the number of entries to date were 1031 (get it, 10/31?!), so it's oh SO appropriate to be uploading Halloween goodness today; don't you agree?!


stamps: Mike's craft smart l'il frankenstein; paper: My Mind's Eye blackbird neighborhood DP, ColorMates' Dark Morning Mist and Dark Terra-Cotta, Paper Reflections' black, SU's Kiwi Kiss, Orchid Opulence, River Rock, and Worldwin Papers' Midnight Surf card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink; tools: EK Success' circle and scallop circle, Fiskar's postage stamp border punches; accessories: netting from bag used to hold spider rings, unknown black sparkly ribbon

have a spooky night!

My local scrapbooking shop, Capture A Memory, holds make-'n-takes every Saturday that are free to members and range between $2-5 for non-members. They offered a choice of one of a few versions of gift bags and small notecard for today's project. I have two boys, and figured I'd alter mine from a bag into another Halloween card, pictured at left.

I'm shocked to report that I couldn't find a bat image among my stamps, so I purchased some of the puffy bat ribbon to use against the moon.

Here's a couple of the cute sampling of bags offered today. They had all sorts of Halloween images already prepared from some of the shop's dies, which are plentiful, including the house I used, the Boo sentiment, cats, and witches riding brooms. It was fun. Thanx, Jill, for the cute offerings!

first Halloween card of the season

My fav card from September's Stamp Camp offerings ... and I know that I'd saved a link to a similar one I'd spotted in one of the blogs I follow but darn it, can't find it, so can't give proper credit! It's a small world out here in blog land, eh?! Reminds me of a saying ... "Life hasn't been the same since that house fell on my sister!" AND an earlier Halloween card I'd made a couple years ago. I'd intended to pull out my Stampendous mini witch shoes to make one of these this year, and now I have, thanx to the lovely and talented Angie Jarman!

no deets today - all supplies provided in class and I'm too lazy to go looking 'em up!

on resolutions ...

Do you make New Years' resolutions? Do you keep them? Well, I was just sighing and my DH looked up and asked what was up. I explained that I'd just this past Sunday posted that I now have enough Halloween stock so that I never need to purchase more, and then, WHAT does Jessica Sprague do but post some $1 specials this morning that included some of the DP that I'd purchased earlier this year while supporting the local economy at Capture-A-Memory. Sigh ... at 89¢/page as it was double-sided ... and here Jessica offers a whole collection of 18 DPs for $1. There's also a coordinating collection of bingo cards, brads, 19-pc set of tags, and 9-pc stamp set to boot!


Well, he agreed I couldn't pass up a deal like that! You agree, right?!

fright night

Happy Halloween, folkes! I did it again ... forgot to leave a card to post on the actual holiday, so I quickly made up one using one of my latest stamps - this one's a single - and Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday sssc91 sketch challenge. This'll be a quick post 'cuz Geoff wants to show me his latest background on his PC. Oh, and by the way, it's now official ... I have enough Halloween stock on hand to never have to purchase another item ever again, LOL! If you see me at a store considering making yet another purchase, please remind me!

stamps: SU's Midnight Raven, Unity's Hauntingly Sweet (inside sentiment); paper: My Mind's Eye's Haunted Spooky Words DP, Paper Co's Kraft, Paper Reflections' black card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink; accessories: unknown black web ribbon, Making Memories' vintl tape Spook Alley (inside sentiment)

trick or treat

Somebody, stop me! I keep making Halloween cards and can't help myself! I'd picked up this DP and matching stamp set a couple weeks ago and put it aside ... and realized this a.m. that I'd not stamped it yet. Sigh ... so here's another card, this one loosely based on clean & simple's FTL113 sketch challenge.

I DO enjoy Halloween, tho', and always have. We hold trick or treating at my workplace from 3-5 p.m. the Friday before the holdiay, and lots of employees or their spouses bring their kids up. I generally like to get into the spirit and have amassed quite a collection of clown and witch garb. I don't recall which I was last year ...

stamps: My Mind's Eye blackbird stamps, Unity's Hauntingly Sweet (inside sentiment); paper: My Mind's Eye Blackbird Neighborhood DP, A1 Neenah Natural White, ColorMates' Dark Morning Mist, Dark Terra-Cotta card stocks; inks: SU's Close to Cocoa, Kiwi Kiss and asst'd Tri-C watercolor markers; tools: ek success' dotted scallop border punch

have a spooky night!

I love A Muse Artstamps - especially their sentiment stamps! And I have a soft spot for phrases that use a mix of plain and script fonts.

I picked up a few house die cuts last month after a make-'n-take at Karen's Creative Stamping that had previously been used in a Halloween card workshop (how did I miss THAT class, I wonder?!). I paired just the rooftop of this one with a 1-1/4" circle cut from a pale yellow card stock, a snippet of a padded ribbon, and added a cute Halloween sentiment. Voila! Easy Peasy! Another Halloween card's done!

stamps: A Muse Artstamps' Spooky night; paper: SU's Kraft ... er ... Crumb Cake and So Saffron, unknown black card stock; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink; accessories: unknown ghost padded ribbon; tools: Paper Shapers' 1-1/4" punch

them thar's spooky words!

But ... not TOO spooky, agree?! I like the mono- chromatic look of this card - it's all about natural white, kraft, and black ... topped off with some DELISH flocked DP! So I HAD to use my new Crumb Cake ink for the full moon, right?! Of COURSE! (so glad you agreed!)

I'm cooling it today and my goal is to make a b'day card for my sweet niece but I'd had this DP staring me in the face for the past week or so. I picked it up last weekend at Capture-a-Memory while perusing the "new to you" items at their sidewalk sale. So ... today's a two-fer. As my blog auto mirror posts to Facebook, hers will have to wait 'til AFTER her b'day to emerge.

I dunno about you, but I don't get a card done daily. Some weeks there are multiples on a daily basis; other weeks I seem to only get crafty on weekends. Hey, some weeks pass by when I don't get crafty at all!

Today I MEANT to donate platelets at the Red Cross, but I forgot and took a "low dose" aspirin (it's a recent daily medical regimen) this past Thursday. I spoke to someone yesterday who assured me I was okay to donate, but this a.m. I wanted to be sure and mentioned it to the nurse before I started my questionnaire portion of my donation registration, and she confirmed that I shouldn't donate 'cuz I'd had aspirin within the past 48 hours.

So, instead I did what any natural-born crafter would do ... I went in search of necessary crafty items to support the local economy. Today that meant taking my two 40% and one 50% off coupons to JoAnn's! I saw an ol' working buddy and his bride from back in my GM days - hi Terry! - and we talked kids and scrapping and card-making for a bit before going on our separate ways. I picked up some SWEET DP and card stock and Halloween supplies using my coupons ... more to follow on that in another post while Mrs Terry picked up a cool music ek success border punch!

stamps: A Muse Artstamps' Frightful & delightful, SU's Home Is Where the Haunt Is; paper: My Mind's Eye's Spooky Words DP, A1 Neenah Classic's Natural White, Paper Co's Kraft, Paper Reflections' Black card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink, SU's Crumb Cake; accessories: unknown die cut house top, Buy-The-Spool black ric-rac ribbon; tools: Cuttlebug w Spellbinders Nestabilities Label 8

a sticky situation

While perusing my sticker inventory a couple weeks ago for my "talk like a pirate" posts, I happened upon these sweet Stickopotamus spideys, and I thought they'd pair up cute-like with my latest making memories' vinyl tape strips!

Quick post tonite - my DH just left to pick up Chinese take-out for supper! LOVE that man! Thanx for stopping!

stamps: n/a; paper: SU's Kiwi Kiss card stock; ink: PC-generated (inside) sentiment; accessories: making memories Spook Alley vinyl tape strips, Stickopotamus Spiders binder stickers

happy fright night to you

This card's not really all that frightful, butI just LOVE rich fall colors. Loosely based on Clean & Simple's FTL109 sketch, I pulled a few of my fav fall colors to pull this one together. I may have gone a bit overboard on distressing but I was too lazy to go to my stamping stash to grab some sponges so just used a dried-out baby wipe that I'd used to clean stamps recently to apply ... rather uneven but such is life!

It's been a busy week and I'm SO pleased the weekend's here! My DH is enjoying some F1 racing while I catch up on blog trolling. No plans for the most part except a promised trip to video store w my DS and I'm hoping to make the trek to A2 to visit my niece and sister. I've got plenty of house cleaning to catch up on. I dunno about you, but I tend to collapse at the end of the work day and don't get much done 'til weekends.

And speaking of fall colors, I didn't catch the outrageous sunlit-drenched golden leaves, but my DH called me outside to catch what the sunset was doing to the leaves in the yard across the street yesterday evening ... this is the view from my driveway, with a tree branch from our yard that was blowing in the breeze. It's been quite breezy here lately and we had 19,000 residents without power and plenty of school closings this week due to power outages. We never lost power but two schools located in our neighborhood were closed. It's cooled considerably but the winds have died down - they're now averaging about 15 mph and gusting to 35 mph ... but it'd make for challenging golf, eh?!

stamps: SU's Carved & Candlelit, Eat Drink & Be Scary; paper: A1 Neenah Classic Natural White, SU's Crumb Cake, Crushed Curry, Old Olive card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot and old paper distress inks, SU's Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie; tools: Cuttlebug w Sizzix's large dot texturz plate

trick or treat!

It's almost the end of summer and while I SHOULD probably be celebrating how beautiful it was today, in the 80's and sunny and breezy, I just happened to pick up this cutie patootie house die cut this past Saturday while out supporting the local economy! I don't know the vendor ... it's something I just happened to notice from some past project that Karen had left-overs of, so I asked for some. It's CAS and too cute to be called spooky, don't you agree?!

We celebrated the end of summer by eating lunch at a sidewalk cafe of a restaurant I'd not been to before - it was way to nice to stay indoors today and they say rain's on its way for the rest of the week - Blackstones' in downtown Flint. It was a last-minute decision 'cuz we still didn't know where we were headed at 11:50 a.m. but they had YUMMY seasoned thick-sliced crinkle chips ... more like fries, and I had their signature sandwich, the Blackstone (grilled classic Irish bacon (who knew?! IRISH bacon?!), turkey, pastrami w spicy mustard and swiss cheese on pumpernickel (I opted for toasted wheat)). What'd you have for lunch today?

stamps: ki memories' halloween icons, SU's Home Is Where The Haunt Is; paper: SU's Cast-A-Spell DP and Barely Banana card stock; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink

it's all about the candycorn

Ain't it the truth?! I almost titled this post, "be careful what you wish for," because I'd been thinking it was too bad that I didn't have any candycorn yet to use as prop items to sprinkle next to the card for the picture ... but then, if I DID have any, I'd be nibbling on them and we wouldn't have any by the end of October! This stamp set was a July purchase that was on sale - so I gobbled it up - this main stamp and 3 sentiment stamps for $4 - a deal, don't you think?! So of COURSE I kept shopping ... don't just want to ship one item and pay more for shipping than I did for the stamp, right?! So I have another BK stamp too, at 24% off its regular price. So sweet in more ways than one!

A new challenge site to ME, I was inspired by last week's Friday Mashup sketch challenge:


stamps: Unity's Hauntingly Sweet; paper: Paper Reflections' black, Staples' white 110#, SU's Crushed Curry, Kraft, and Pumkin Pie card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink, SU's Pumpkin Pie and Crushed Curry (after the pic was taken I also added some Old Olive to the pumkins' stems) markers; tools: Fiskars apron lace border and Marvy corner rounder punches

spooky

My buddy Pat and I got together after work last night to head to Angie's class where I was pleased to see we worked on 3 Halloween cards and a couple assorted ones. Here's one of the Halloween ones we made, tho' it's hard for me to pick a fav. They're all darlin'!

Quick post tonight - it's late and I'm zonked so I'm hitting the hay! See you in the morning!

CPS77 Eat, Drink, & Be Scary!

I'm still in my "green" phase, apparently, and used one of my fav color combos - black, white, and a punch of color - this time Kiwi Kiss topped off the Old Olive in the DP - in making the first of my Halloween cards of the year! I love the lovely and talented folkes at Card Patterns' blog, tho' I don't often make the time to play by their allotted deadline - and this week was no exception! This is from their CPS77 sketch challenge post.

I dunno whether my DH would agree with me or not, but I CAN be frugal in my stamp collecting! This witches' hat is from a SU demo used stamp set and it's teamed with a dollar stamp set from Joann's, of all places! I really like the shape of the spider stamp - that part and the oct. 31 stamps are from a ki memories stamp set that was originally priced inexpensively, at $4.99, but clearanced at 97¢ when I spotted 'em, so I snatched 'em up. I'm a sucker for bare trees, and this set has a terrifically spooky one in it, too. And, sigh, this must be one of those "beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder" examples in the stamp world, 'cuz I can't imagine parting with this SU Halloween set but I'm glad someone else didn't feel that way!

stamps: ki memories' Halloween Icons, SU's Eat, Drink & Be Scary; paper: SU's Cast-A-Spell DP, Paper Reflections' black and Staples' 110# white card stocks; ink: Ranger's Black Soot distress ink; tools: circle and round tab (used on inside) punches

TP mummies

I was explaining to my budds this a.m. that I planned on stopping by one of our local craft stores to pick up some white crepe paper to make some toilet paper mummies ... and they needed a visual when I explained what I was up to. Well, here it 'tis, folkes ... and I have Cindy Lou to thank for this cutie! These have Halloween treats inside for my boys, 'natch, and are easy peasy and cute, don't you agree?!

stamps: n/a; paper: white crepe paper, "spent" toilet paper rolls; ink: n/a; accessories: "googly" eyes